Tag: Diet

Today I’d just like to address the statement “Being a Vegan is too Hard”. I uploaded the picture on instagram, click here, of this incredible, 100% vegan burger, I ate at a local restaurant and it just made me think. Being vegan is now easier than ever. More and more companies are taking responsibility and offering food and products which are safe for vegans. Granted, they are only doing this for profit, supply meets demand and all that, but it still means that veganism is being presented to the mainstream and is easily accessible. It feels like every week I see an announcement that a shop or restaurant has a new range of vegan food/has changed the recipe of a meal to make it vegan. For example; just last week Sainsburys released a delicious range of vegan cheeses, now nicknamed Gary, and even McDonald’s have made their burger (if you ask for no mayo) and fries vegan friendly. The food industry really is revolutionising, the dairy industry is declining rapidly and veganism is rising at that same pace. Just look at the statistics for veganunary. 2016 saw a rise of 5x the amount of people participating, and 6 months on 50% of them had remained vegan, that’s a lot of people.

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. I guess what I’m trying to say is this. Don’t use the excuse that being vegan is too hard, educate yourself and come to the decision based on actual logic rather than laziness. Yes, we might have to read labels and such, but what’s 5 minutes out of your day.

Cognitive dissonance. That pretty much summarises the whole human race at this point. The definition of this term is the following: “the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change”. Mainstream beliefs are constantly contradicting themselves in this day and age, and the most recent example of this is the controversial death of the rare La Plata Dolphin which tragically died after being passed around for a selfie on a beach in Argentina. Now I love animals, as you can tell by my passion for being Vegan so this upset me more than most, however; I love all animals and believe they all have the right to live just like you and I, and, despite the fact this particular dolphin is a very rare species, the death of this dolphin upsets me just as much as the death of a cow for your burger, or the death of a male chick for simply not being born a woman. All animals have the desire to live and, in my opinion, are equally deserving of that right. Death is death, and I am fully aware that dying for a selfie is ridiculous, but dying for food after spending an entire life enslaved and being pumped full of steroids and antibiotics is equally ridiculous, particularly in 2016 when humans have no need to eat meat, in fact the general consensus of science is that a vegan diet is actually optimum for human health, despite what mainstream media propaganda/coverups will have you believe, such as that recent video from WatchMojo. Just look at people like Dr. Kim A Williams, who happens to be the president of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Michael Greger who uploads daily content on his site (click here), Dr. T Colin Campbell, who published the biggest study on nutrition of all time in the China Study. There are tons of mechanistic data and studies showing that Vegan diets actually can reverse disease and, considering that 14 out of the 15 biggest killers in the UK/US are diet related, this is revolutionary. There is not one nutrient that benefits the human body which cannot be obtained from a vegan diet, humans simply choose to eat meat, it’s traditional, they have you believe it’s ‘natural’, it tastes good and by consuming meat/dairy you are actively supporting the rape, exploitation, enslavement and slaughter of innocent, sentient beings that are motivated by the same emotions to live as we are, and if that upsets or offends you, maybe it’s time to wake up from this fantasy land the media portrays where chickens and cows run around happy and accept the reality of your decisions to consume animal products.

To summarise; it’s obvious that humans love animals, you can tell that from how upset everyone is about this dolphin, not to mention the fact many of us have pets which we love. Humans have no carnivorous instincts, as I said in my last post (here), and more and more people are realising this, making the connection, and going vegan. I understand we don’t see a dolphin as food in this country, but other cultures eat dolphin, we are just desensitised to other animals dying and being labelled as bacon or sausage, it’s wrong and will change, sooner or later.

And this is not the truth because I’m Vegan, I’m Vegan because it’s the truth. Keep smiling, Harrison.

Is everyone a hypocrite? The short answer to this seemingly simple question is, yes. Obviously the degrees of hypocrisy vary and some are very simple, for example; thinking that gossip is bad but then talking to a friend about someone behind their back. I mean nobody likes to be judged yet, whether this is consciously or unconsciously, we all judge others even if we do not mean to, and sometimes this is justified, such as labelling Adolph Hitler as a dickhead, and this is hypocrisy.

Humans are intelligent beings, and as we grow and evolve our ideology and opinions of things change therefore deeming us all ‘hypocrites’ to some extent. For example; I used to despise Justin Bieber and wished that he, along with his high pitched voice and annoyingly catchy songs (mainly ‘Baby’), would leave the public spotlight forever. But now I happen to think he is pretty fly (for a white guy) and actually quite like him. Now this is a very tedious example, but hopefully you get the picture. We live in a world designed for hypocrites, and if everyone practised what they preached the world would be even more disturbing and corrupt and the prisons would probably become very overcrowded, so some hypocrisy can be a good thing.

So yeah, I was thinking about this topic regarding the tragic death of Zimbabwe’s legendary… Cecil the Lion ‘rawr’ (that was a Madagascar reference, yknow Alex). Hunting animals for pleasure disgusts me, as it does most sane humans, and seeing people pose with a lions head or a rhinos lifeless carcass fills me with immense sadness and compassion towards the animal, and it seems almost everyone feels the same. However, I can’t help but sense an overwhelming amount of hypocrisy when people express their discomfort on trophy hunting and this particular case involving Cecil. Now as you know, I’m vegetarian (going Vegan in September when I go to University), so I am no saint surrounding this subject and therefore I am, at this present time, a hypocrite myself, but at least I understand why. In my opinion you can’t be upset about hunting and the killing of Cecil whilst consuming animal products with no care in the world. The animals people eat (pigs, cow, chicken etc) are by no means worth any less than lions and other endangered species. They have feelings and families just like Cecil, and other ‘precious’ animals. In fact, in a way, it is worse for the animals us humans eat. Chickens for example are hatched and then separated from their mothers instantly, injected/fed hormones to make them grow super fast and thus in an unhealthy way and then slaughtered within the first year of their life. Even the life they do live is usually caged and very painful for them, and that is just the surface of what the other animals humans eat go through. I don’t push my views down peoples throats usually, or look down on people who do eat meat, just thought this hypocrisy needed addressing, and if you do feel compassion towards Cecil then maybe it’s time to go vegan, or vegetarian at the very least. I mean, humans aren’t designed to eat meat anyway and animal products are actually unhealthy for us, so, just like trophy hunters, we slaughter and exploit animals for pleasure, just in the form of food rather than a ‘trophy kill’. Is bacon really worth the slaughter of an innocent being?

I hope this post made sense, I feel very passionately about this subject so start ranting and therefore writing terribly and way too fast. Also, I don’t mean to offend anyone with this post, but yeah, the truth hurts.

Watch this documentary if you want my point emphasising, be warned though, it will open your eyes to the sad truth. CLICK HERE. (Image used in header not mine, obviously)